"What happened to you?" Belinda flipped open the visor mirror and shrieked. "I just stood there talking to a man looking like this!" "What kind of man?" Belinda pursed her lips. "Well, your level of panic should coincide with the person who saw you. Now, if it was someone who's friends with your father, do you really care that much how you looked? No, of course not. So what kind of man are we talking about?" Belinda wanted to cry. "The kind that we trick into coming to your house." It took Victoria a second, but then she lit up. "I'm sure he didn't notice your appearance." She did a three-point turn and pulled out to the main road. Belinda grimaced. "I'm positive it was the total opposite. He pulled a leaf from my hair and then asked if I'd been in the woods." "What did you do anyway?" Belinda explained her foray through the perimeter bushes and then how Bennett was walking toward her. For the moment, she decided to keep the photos to herself. "So what did you tell him you were doing?" "I'm not sure I ever got around to it. I sort of unintentionally turned the conversation on him." Belinda tossed leaves out the window as they drove. "I guess you remembered the whistle?" "Summer before senior year. Saved by the whistle as my father showed up while Matt Reardon mouth attacked me on our non-date though I was supposed to be at the movies with you." "Saved you on two accounts." "Matt Reardon. Can you believe I spent an entire school year daydreaming about him? Then I finally get close to all my dreams coming true, and all I wanted to do the entire night was kill him. Came this close to pushing him overboard when he tried to kiss me." "Hormones, darling. We all had them." "At least your infatuations made sense. Every boy I liked in high school turned out to be a plague upon mankind." "It's a good thing you left them all behind. Now you're free for Hot Security Man." Belinda shifted her eyes sideways. "Just sayin', I don't think he's a plague upon mankind." "Not yet." "You're older now. You can spot the plagues before you get emotionally invested." Victoria winked, detouring downhill toward downtown on the divided four lane road. As she pushed down on the brakes nearing a red light, Victoria glanced in her rearview mirror to see a car barreling toward them.
Chapter 8
Bennett watched in horror as the car that had just cut in front of him bashed into the black Fiat, sending it careening through the intersection and straight for the corner of a shop. Fear and panic replaced his idle wondering what Belinda had done inside that house and why. He ran toward the smashed Fiat, grateful he'd followed them from the Ocean Walk. He yelled at the dazed shop owner to call for help, swinging Belinda's door open. "Can either of you hear me?" he said. He thought Belinda moaned and her friend didn't make a peep. He couldn't help them and just stood there in frustration, waiting for the paramedics. Belinda's eyes flickered as Bennett finally heard sirens. Fortunately, one of the police stations was not far away. Belinda and Victoria started to come to as the help arrived and Bennett was forced out of the picture as the police moved in and the paramedics braced up the two women and helped them into the ambulances. Belinda was in good hands and he made sure that they knew where to get in touch with Kyle before they whisked them away to the hospital. Bennett glanced around as they drove off, catching sight of a camera under the overhang of the shop's roof. His eyes widened and he scrambled to get to the owner, whom he knew. The poor guy just stood in disbelief where the nose of the Fiat stabbed through the side of his shop. "Is that camera working?" Bennett said, his arm stretched up at the device. "Y–yes." The gray-haired man blinked like he answered before he truly understood the question. "Oh...oh!" He did a three-sixty in place and waved Bennett into the flower shop and toward the back where the